Denial By Another Name

Posted on December 13, 2006
Filed Under For Argument's Sake |

Opinion is not divided over Iran’s attempts to question the Holocaust. In fact there has been no collective hand wringing over how we provide this particular conflict with propaganda ammunition by not engaging with the accusation that the West suppresses free speech. All done and dusted you might say. We’ve had that debate and concluded that there’s too much at risk for us here if we allow people of a fascist bent to question the Holocaust. Too much to lose, nothing to gain.

So what else are we going to do to counter not just Iranian propaganda but also the pervasive sense in the Middle East and elsewhere that we make up our own rules on such virtues as equality, fairness and openness? Lest anyone should doubt we’re in a propaganda war… well, we’re pretty close to yet another physical one too, against enemies that actively seek nuclear weapons and might glory in the martyrdom of using them. Nuclear weapons even worse for environment, says scientist, comparing cumulative impact of impulse shock and radiation fall-out to Co2 emissions. Help! Ice cap lets off steam.

Creating safety out of this turblulence simply by asserting our superior way of life is like one of those cartoons where the big guy is finally sinking into the quicksand shouting: I told you I was right. You just got to make like you’re treading water! Glug, glug, glug!

Is there a politician out there who truly believes we can maintain pretty much all the status quo in the way we think, act, produce, portray ourselves in movies, describe ourselves in books, and keep safe? I mean is there nothing on the canvas called western culture that we might repaint in slightly lighter shades?

Having interviewed only one holocaust survivor I came away with the feeling that the need to defend their memories is indeed central to our culture. Where else do you turn for progress?

News today from Yahoo that high up in the Pentagon military leaders are enforcing Christian evangelical practices on their subordinates. Is that a place to start our own reforms?

Or maybe down on the streets where the worst inequalities prevail? A gesture there?

What exactly do our politicians propose to do to break an impasse on the way to more conflict? Send in more troops!

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